2018Q3SpiritedVA - 28

gallons, at Reservoir they like an
80-litre quarter cask.
Why is this significant? Well,
according to Cuttino, "American
spirits have a profile that is roughly
70 percent barrel influenced." The
flavor is, in part, derived from the
"terroir of oak, tightness of grain, age
of staves, thickness, toast and char."
In a standard barrel, it takes about
six years to extract all the flavor from
a barrel, but in a quarter cask this
can happen in just six months.
Cuttino and his team are quite
thorough, dedicated and precise
when it comes to barrels. It all
starts with a few Virginia oaks:
Have them cut into staves and
air-stacked outside for up to
two years. This process allows a
lichen to grow on the wood that
penetrates and breaks up cells
allowing our spirit solvent to access
more oak notes. We then have
them made into quarter casks,
toasted and Alligator charred.
Most bourbon uses a char of
two or three, but an alligator char
is off the charts, a five or six.
If you looked inside the barrel,
you'd see that the interior had
been burned so much that it
looks like alligator skin. Age isn't
the important factor, according
to Cuttino. It's maturity. The art
28 VIRGINIA ABC | ABC.VIRGINIA.GOV

of making whiskey is a delicate
balance of ingredients, the barrel,
your distilling process, and the
flavors you hope to achieve. When
a whiskey has aged to a certain
point, and it tastes right, that's
how you know it's done.
If a bourbon barrel can only
be used once, what becomes of
the old container? It's often sent
to Scotland for aging Scotch
whiskey, which doesn't require new
barrels. Every whiskey-in fact,
every spirit-has its own rules
and traditions about barreling.
Used bourbon barrels are sold to
distilleries in Canada, Scotland,
Ireland, Mexico or the Caribbean.
Some of the used casks are even
repurposed to hold beer, wine, hot
sauce or barbeque sauce.
Some say there are historical
reasons for bourbon requiring
new barrels. In the early days,
distillers in Kentucky would put
the bourbon in large oak barrels
and ship them down river or to
the eastern seaboard. White oak
was plentiful in Kentucky and
perfect for making air-tight casks.
The bourbon would age during the
trip and be bottled after reaching
its final destination. Kentucky
had more than enough trees and
it was expensive to ship barrels

BRIAN PREWITT: COURTESY OF A SMITH BOWMAN DISTILLERY

Brian Prewitt

back home, which may be why they
weren't re-used. Of course, there
are more scientific reasons, too.
Used barrels "lose their virtue."
This means the spirits aged in them
won't be as consistent in flavor, so
new barrels are preferable.
We spoke with Brian Prewitt,
master distiller at A. Smith Bowman
Distillery, to get a little more insight
into the issue. In both 2016 and
2017, a Bowman product was named
World's Best Bourbon by Whisky
Magazine, so he knows a thing or
two. According to Prewitt, more
than 60 percent of the taste comes
from the barrel. There are many
factors that influence a bourbon's
taste, including the type of wood
used, the forest it comes from,
and the level of char. The Bowman
team is very careful in selecting
their grains, barrels and char-level
in order to achieve "a consistent
maturation and produce the flavors
that we're looking for out of our
spirits."
Prewitt does things a little
differently than his competitors,
which may account for his
success. Instead of aging sprits
on their sides, they have them sit
upright on pallets. He believes
that this is, in part, responsible
for the unique flavors of the
whiskey. His philosophy is to
keep experimenting, keep moving
forward. Bowman has come up with
a long list of innovative drinks and
methods, including spirits finished
with coffee, port and gingerbread
stout; using different warehouses;
trying out new types of wood in
the barrels; and releasing spirits
at higher proofs. You don't know
what's going to work until you try
it. This is the "Pioneer Spirit" that's
Bowman's motto. Prewitt, and
all bourbon distillers, honor the
18th-century Americans who first
made the drink by continuing to use
traditional techniques and materials
and also by pushing forward and
discovering something new.
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